This document discusses common conventions used in music videos. It identifies the following key conventions: narrative structure, live performance, dancing, use of props/locations/costumes (mise-en-scene), featuring the artist, varied cinematography techniques like different shots and angles, editing techniques like jumps cuts and slow motion, use of color to match the song/artist, and inclusion of sound effects or breaks in the music. Many popular music videos from artists like Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, and Katy Perry are cited as examples that employ conventions like narrative, performance, varied camera work, and editing.

1. Conventions: Form
 Narrative
 Performance: this depends mostly on genre (live performance, dancing, lip-syncing)
 A wide range of mise-en-scene (props, locations, costumes etc)
 Artist featuring in their video (acting or as themselves)
 Variety of Cinematography (close ups, long shots, movement, low/high angles, wide shots
etc)
 Range of editing (rhythmic editing, jump cuts, overlapping, fades, slow motion, text etc)
 Colour: to reflect the artists image or match the emotions of the song
 Sound (non-diegetic or sound breaks)

2. Narrative
• Narrative is a very popular convention within music videos today. Here are a few examples of some
videos that have narratives: Black Widow by Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora, In Your Dreams by Stevie
Nicks, Grenade by Bruno Mars, Telephone by Beyoncé and Lady Gaga and Last Friday Night by Katy
Perry. Both Telephone and Last Friday Night have very strong narratives with Telephone having a 9
minute long video and Last Friday Night having a 8 minute long video.

3. Performance
• Performance is also another popular convention within music videos. Performance can range
from anything from live performance, lip-syncing and dancing. A few examples of these
conventions can be seen in these videos: Houdini by Foster the People has live performance,
Love on Top by Beyoncé combines the 3, Flawless Remix by Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj has live
performance and Stay the Night by Zedd and Hayley Williams has dancing and lip-syncing.

4. Mise-en-scene
• Mise-en-scene is a convention which is used in everything, no matter what music video it is.
Mise-en-scene ranges from locations, props, costumes etc. A good example of this is
Anaconda by Nicki Minaj as this video includes all of the areas of mise-en-scene. Nicki’s
own brand of products appear as props in the video, like the ‘Pink Pill’ and her drink, Myx.

5. Featured Artist
• Most videos feature their own artist, it is very rare that they do not. Most of the time if the artist doesn’t feature is
because it is abstract or there is a narrative where the artist isn’t needed. These are a few videos which have this
convention: All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor, Break Free by Ariana Grande, Lie A Little Better by Lucy Hale,
Ain’t it Fun by Paramore and Video Girl by FKA Twigs. All these music videos have the artists featuring them,
whether they’re narrative or not.

6. Variety of Cinematography
• Most music videos have a variety of cinematography to keep the video interesting and appealing to the
viewer. Whether this be close ups, long shots, mid-shots, wide shots or low/high angles, movement etc.
These are a few videos which include this convention: Problem by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea with
different angles, 21 Guns by Greenday with a variety of different camera shots (this can also be linked
to mise-en-scene because they have a lot of different props, especially gun shots which look very
realistic), Bad Girls by M.I.A which has a lot of shots which have movement, Hurricane by Thirty
Seconds to Mars and Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé.

7. Range of Editing
• Again, like cinematography, the majority of music videos have editing. Whether it be rhythmic editing, jump cuts or interesting edits
like fades, dissolving, slow motion, overlapping and use of text, they usually include some type of editing. These are a few videos
which include this convention: Up in the Air by Thirty Seconds to Mars (this includes all types of different edits), Bad Romance by
Lady Gaga, Countdown by Beyoncé, Right by my Side by Nicki Minaj.

8. Colour
• All videos have colour within their music videos. With it either being black and white or
colour. The colours used in the music video usually reflects the emotions of the song and
possibly the artists image. These are a few videos which have this convention: The Boys by
Nicki Minaj and Cassie, Don’t Stop by 5 Seconds of Summer, You Da One by Rihanna,
Wonderwall by Oasis and All of Me by John Legend.

9. Sound
• Obviously, all music videos have sound otherwise there would be no music video at all.
Sound can change within different genre of music videos. Non-diegetic sound is used in
Midnight City by M83 and sound breaks are used in videos like Moment for Life by Nicki
Minaj and I’m Not the Only One by Sam Smith.